“I used to overthink matches,” Kimbrell said after tying the school record for wins in a season at 42 with the 5-3 win in overtime over Oak Hills’ Ryan Fitzpatrick. “I stopped looking at the brackets. I just want to wrestle my match, my offense against them. Whoever is on the mat is who I wrestle.”
Kimbrell’s coach, Frank Baxter, will have plenty of brackets to look at to prepare his squad for the state tournament. Fairmont broke the school record of four state qualifiers set by Fairmont West in 1978 in getting five to the state tournament.
“I think we couldn’t have scripted it any better,” Baxter said after Fairmont finished fifth with 112.5 points. “Our kids have started to turn it on at the end of the year. This (getting to state) is what we train for, and the kids have bought into what we are doing.”
Fairmont went 2-1 in the championship finals with sophomore Matt Denlinger getting things started. Garrett Conner (second at 215 pounds), Justin Kihn (third at 112) and Josh Parrett (fourth at 119) also advanced.
Denlinger, who just missed a trip to state last season, recorded a first-period takedown and never relinquished the lead in a 3-2 win over Lebanon’s Seth Gilbert in the final at 130.
Denlinger had defeated Gilbert in the sectional finals last week and the Greater Western Ohio Conference tournament at the beginning of February.
“It helps a lot (to wrestle someone you know),” Denlinger said. “I studied the videos of the matches a lot and I felt like I could capitalize on his mistakes.”
Trips to the state tournament are getting to be old hat for Wayne’s Marcus Windsor.
Windsor, however, will make the trip this season as a district champ for the first time after claiming a 3-1 win in the 112 finals. Windsor, though, was more worried about his semis match against Princeton freshman A.J. Kowal, who he had split with at the Holiday tournament.
“I trained every day for this. ... I went to two practices a day for this,” Windsor said. “Winning the district is a great feeling.”
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